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News > Latin America

Major Police Attacks Against Evo Morales' Supporters, 1 Dead

  • A man is detained during clashes between supporters of Bolivian President Evo Morales, who announced his resignation on Sunday, and opposition supporters in La Paz, Bolivia Nov. 11, 2019.

    A man is detained during clashes between supporters of Bolivian President Evo Morales, who announced his resignation on Sunday, and opposition supporters in La Paz, Bolivia Nov. 11, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

Published 11 November 2019
Opinion

Multiple unions and social movements have come out against the coup and said that they refuse to recognize Morales' resignation as it was forced on him by the military.

Residents of the city of El Alto, in the department of La Paz, took to the streets Monday to protest against the coup d'etat that forced the resignation of Evo Morales, however, they were met with violent police repression, in which officers are reportedly using live ammunition and rubber bullets.  

"After the first day of the civic-political-police coup, rebellious police use bullets to cause deaths and injuries in El Alto. My solidarity with those innocent victims, among them a girl, and the heroic alter people, defender of democracy," Morales said from his Twitter account Monday. 

According to videos posted by residents of El Alto on social media networks, among the injured are two people and a girl who were shot and evacuated by protesters.

Protesters denounce that the Bolivian police joined the coup against Morales, with the support of the now ex-commander of the Yuri Calderón institution. 

"The first thing we have to do is organize groups in all cities, we will proceed to arrests to grab all the heads that are causing anxiety, we will take back the city," Calderón said when he resigned. 

Multiple unions and social movements have come out against the coup and said that they refuse to recognize Morales' resignation as it was forced on him by the military after weeks of right-wing violent protests and attacks. 

Earlier in the day, Morales condemned right-wing opposition leaders Carlos Mesa and Lusi Camacho for failing to stop the violence in the country and warning that they intend to blame him for such violence instead of taking responsibility following the coup against his leftist government. 

"Mesa and Camacho, discriminators and conspirators, will go down in history as racists and coup plotters," Morales said in a tweet early Monday morning. "That they assume their responsibility to pacify the country and guarantee the political stability and peaceful coexistence of our people. The world and Bolivian patriots repudiate the coup."

He was forced to resign Sunday after senior army and police chiefs called on him to do so following weeks of right-wing unrest and violence against his Oct. 20 elections victory, in what his government has called a coup by opposition forces in the country. 

“I decided to resign from my position so that Carlos Mesa and Luis Camacho stop abusing and harming thousands of brothers ... I have the obligation to seek peace and it hurts a lot that we face Bolivians, for this reason, so I will send my letter of resignation to the Plurinational Assembly of Bolivia,” the former president of Bolivia said in a press release. 

Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera also said that he was resigning from his position. The two leaders said that they would be handing their resignation letters to the country's National Assembly.

Since both President and Vice Presiden resigned, the president of the Senate, a position held by Adriana Salvatierra of the MAS party was supposed to assume the post but she later issued her resignation as well as the president of the Chamber of Deputies.

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